Filling the Void
by luvtheheaven
Summary: Mary Beth and Travis begin to date. Some more heavy or angst-filled stuff will be in here (in addition to lots of cute fluff) as Mary Beth is still grieving her brother and Travis has some different yet also complex emotions toward his own estranged family. Other characters who have relationships with Mary Beth or Travis, such as Bay, Emmett, Melody, etc. will likely appear. Enjoy!
1. The Start of Something Really Great

_**Author's Note:**__ So I searched this site and apparently no Mary Beth fics exist yet, and only two Travis fics, one of which is a VERY short Noah/Travis friendship oneshot? This is a ridiculous shame. I adore both of these characters, and I am happy to start writing a fic for them now. They deserve way more attention on this site, in general, in my opinion._

_I will try to explore their journey in a realistic way, starting with what we really saw happen on the show in seasons 1 and 2 for both of their characters - including the two episodes in which they interacted in season 2, 2x18 "As The Shadows Deepen" and 2x20 "The Merrymakers". Since season 2 is all that has aired as of the time of me writing it, only seasons 1-2 will count as canon. Season 3 will undoubtedly deviate, in many ways, from the story I tell in my fic here._

_In this fic, I will include other Switched at Birth characters such as Emmett and Melody, since Travis is currently living with them; Bay, since Mary Beth is friends with her; etc. I will try to bring Travis' family into the story and Mary Beth's backstory with her late brother, Justin, as well. _

_I hope I can get a lot written before January when the show returns and the canon starts to contradict what I've established._

_For chapter 1, below, I recount a lot of what we actually saw in episode 2x18. But I begin to add in a few of my own details, and chapter 2 will be much more unique. I hope you like it. Enjoy!_

_Also, someone agreed to be my beta a while ago, but now she's not replying to my email? So I decided to post this un-betaed. I was impatient. If you think it'd be good for me to get a beta to help improve my writing in the future, please let me know in the reviews._

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Chapter 1: "The Start of Something Really Great"

_You want to go out sometime?_

Mary Beth read the words on his cell phone screen and then looked back into his face in surprise. He was asking her on a date! No one had ever done that before. She'd had crushes before, but none of the guys she'd ever liked had ever liked her back.

Travis looked back at her expectantly, awaiting her reply. Flustered, she averted her eyes nervously and felt the corners of her mouth curl, involuntarily, into a smile.

"Yeah, uh… sure!" she quickly replied while shyly looking down toward his phone, which was still in her hands.

She looked up and immediately saw from the look on his face that he was still awaiting an answer. She felt stupid. The guy was deaf! Of course mumbling her acceptance wasn't going to suffice.

"Uh… yes," she finally answered more clearly, looking right at him as she said it, and simultaneously signing one of the few signs she'd actually learned before this shift. "Yes" was a simple shaking of her fist in a particular position. She nodded vigorously to add to the effect, sure one of the three things was bound to get her answer across.

His face lit up with a smile.

"Uh… I'm, uh…" she trailed off, trying to sign her own name. She had thought she'd memorized the alphabet that morning, but now it was proving quite difficult. She only got through the "Mary" part before giving up.

"Mary Beth," she told him, hoping maybe he could just read her lips.

He seemed to get it. Then he started to reply and signed out the letters of his own name. Clearly, he was going very slowly for her benefit, and she appreciated it.

"Trav… i…" she read aloud what she was seeing him sign. "Travis!" She got his name. She smiled, giddy at everything right now. She was going on a date! She had successfully conveyed her own name to him _and_ understood his! Things were going so well, so far. She nervously looked down at the phone in her hands again, with which she'd been mindlessly fiddling. She noticed the black protective case which was not a feature of her own phone.

"Here! Sorry," she blurted out as she handed it back to its rightful owner, apologizing for holding onto it for slightly too long. She let out a chuckle and he smiled at her as he slid it into his pocket.

They stared at each other for a few more moments, but then Mary Beth heard commotion as everyone started gathering for the showing of the film. She looked over at Travis questioningly and pointed in that general direction. He turned around and saw what she was referring to. He returned to face her, then pointed to the Deafenstein poster on his T-shirt with a smile. Using ASL, he asked if she wanted to join him over there. She nodded, glad that games were now officially closed for the evening so that she wouldn't have to miss the movie.

They were walking over together, but on their way Emmett sighted his friend and pulled Travis away from Mary Beth. Travis looked back toward her apologetically, and before he knew it he found himself seated beside Emmett with no spot beside him for the girl he'd just asked out.

She didn't sweat it, however, and found herself an open seat on the other side of that aisle that was fairly nearby. In fact, she had a nice view of her suitor from where she was sitting. She looked at the back of his head as she waited for the film to begin rolling.

Earlier that day he had been completely wasted. She had told him she didn't find it a turn on, and she hadn't been lying. But somehow, mere moments later, she had already started to find him quite attractive. She had been rooting for him to win the extra round of the game that he wasn't even supposed to be allowed to play. She had felt genuinely bad for him as he lost, because he, unlike most players, was clearly so disappointed. When he'd returned to claim his hoodie, she had no idea that he was going to ask her out, but she was so surprised to realize just how glad she was that he had. There was something special about him. She couldn't wait to get to know him better.

As the film started, she found herself confused. The film was shown entirely in ASL, and she didn't really know enough of the words to appreciate much. But she tried to take in the body language and facial expressions, and tried to interpret some of the more obvious signs. She wished she'd read the classic Frankenstein novel or seen a regular English film about the characters before - something to help her grasp a bit more of the story.

After about twenty minutes, she found herself sucked in just the same. She was able to understand enough. There was a lot of over-acting and it was pretty clear how silly the film was, despite trying to take itself seriously. What was meant to scare viewers had the audience cracking up in laughter, and she found herself surprised by how loud a crowd of mainly deaf folk could be.

Travis looked over at the girl repeatedly throughout the film, wondering how she was reacting to his favorite parts. He was thrilled to find her smiling hugely and even laughing at the film, clearly enjoying it fully. He spent a large portion of the film looking backwards, instead of forwards toward the movie being projected onto the large screen. Emmett noticed, then tapped his friend on the arm.

"What are you looking for?" he signed as discretely as he could, not wanting to distract anyone viewing the film with obvious hand movements.

"I'm just looking at a girl," Travis answered, also keeping his hands close to his body and his movements as slow and covert as he could.

"A girl?" Emmett asked suggestively, teasing him a bit.

Travis tried to ignore him and went back to watching the film.

As it ended, Mary Beth clapped enthusiastically. She'd loved it. Travis was participating in the deaf culture's version of applause as he turned and noticed her doing it wrong. When she met his gaze, he made it clear that she shouldn't clap that way, and she quickly understood and corrected her method.

As everyone started to get up to leave, Travis gestured to her. She approached him along with his friend, and Travis introduced her to Emmett.

"This is Mary Beth. We're going to be going on a date." It was all in ASL, so Mary Beth wasn't entirely sure what he was signing at the end. Emmett smiled at her and reached out his hand to shake hers. When their hands parted, he decided to introduce himself to her.

"Hi, I'm Emmett," he signed slowly. She did know the alphabet well enough to get it, and she was proud of herself.

"Oh, Emmett!" she said in cheerful recognition. "You know Bay well, right? You got us the film?" She felt bad talking so much, when she had no idea how much these deaf guys could or couldn't understand through lip-reading alone.

Emmett, however, nodded.

"I'll leave you two alone, now," he signed to Travis. Mary Beth had no idea what he'd said, but she watched him leave.

Silently, they walked together toward the parking lot. They didn't try to communicate again until they had reached Mary Beth's car.

"So… we should probably set up a time and place for the date, or at least exchange phone numbers," Mary Beth suggested verbally.

Travis furrowed his brow in confusion. He couldn't read lips quite as fast as she was talking.

"Sorry," she said. She held up a finger, asking him to wait one second, then proceeded to find her own phone in her purse and do what he'd done earlier. She composed a note that said:

_Could I get your phone number?_

Then she handed it to him, and watched as he read it. He smiled, of course quickly understanding the request, and looked up at her, nodding. He then entered his digits directly into the "contact" section of her phone.

Handing it back to her, he then signed, "Text me, and that way I'll have your number." She was pretty sure she understood him, and nodded.

She proceeded to open the driver's door of her car and before getting in, she sweetly waved at him. He returned the gesture, then turned his back on her and walked away.

Mary Beth sat in awe of the events that had just transpired. She had been so immersed, quite suddenly, in deaf culture, and now found herself planning to try to forge a relationship with a guy who was deaf himself. She wondered how they could ever possibly get past their massive communication barrier. It'd be a challenge that she found herself excited to try and work around. She had a strong feeling that this thing she was starting with Travis would be the start of something really great.


	2. Texting

_**Author's Note**__: Sorry for the extreme delay between chapters this time. I have no good excuse. :P I'll try to avoid letting it happen again but we'll see…at least it was less than a month lol. I know that's too long, though._

_Also, I apologize that this chapter is so short. I will try to post chapter 3 tomorrow, though, so hopefully that makes up for it._

_Anyway… Happy Halloween! And enjoy chapter 2. I'll try to write chapter 3 asap._

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Chapter 2: "Texting"

Travis, back at Melody and Emmett's home later that evening, felt his phone vibrate and pulled it out of his pocket. He looked down to see the lit up screen. He felt so excited as he saw a text from Mary Beth. Carefully, he saved her number into his phone before replying.

_Yeah, tonight was great. So even without knowing ASL, you enjoyed the film?_

_Definitely. I could appreciate enough. _

_Awesome. UR pretty good at ASL for a hearing person, btw._

_Really?_

Travis considered her question. He realized he had a very limited sample of hearing people with whom he'd interacted. The Carlton school principal was a CODA so of course she was just as good as the Deaf folks with whom he'd interacted. There was Bay, who had dated Emmett pretty seriously for months, and who had been switched at birth with a girl who had been signing since she was three, so it made sense she'd be good too. Even Toby had some motivation to learn to sign, for his newly discovered sister and for Emmett who was in his band, and even for Travis' sake since Travis was now one of his employees. (Travis hated thinking about that. He'd wanted so badly to have been chosen to be the manager.)

But then there was John, whose daughter was Deaf but who struggled with even the simplest signs, even after months of practice. And there was Travis' family, who had never bothered to even try. So, yeah. Mary Beth, who presumably had not even attempted a single sign before today, was pretty good. He thought so, at least.

_Really._

He waited for her reply. He was sitting on a very nice couch, alone in the living room. Emmett and his mother were watching something on TV over in the next room.

_I want to learn more before we go on our date. But I don't even know where to begin!_

He could understand how overwhelmed she probably felt.

_Don't worry about it too much. I can be patient and have gotten pretty good at reading lips over the years._

A part of him was worried she'd be like what Wilke was for Daphne. The complete opposite of Bay. A hearing person who didn't even try. He never intended to give her permission to not try. But there he was, basically doing just that. He couldn't help it. He knew she'd try anyway, even though he didn't really know her at all yet. But he had a good gut feeling about her. She seemed like the type to try.

They set up a time and place for their first date. It'd be in two days, they'd go see a movie at the theater in town that had closed captioning. Then they'd go to get ice cream afterwards, at a little place not too far away.

He remembered how horribly buying the rose for Daphne had gone. He was so nervous he'd do something similar to screw this up. He was glad they didn't have to sit through an entire meal together, worried their communication barrier would be a problem. Eventually, he hoped they would do all sorts of things together. But for now… he wanted to take things slow.

Taking things slow included not texting her too much right away. He didn't want to seem overly desperate or something. So as much as he was curious to find out more about who she was and what her life was like, he decided to just be patient and wait for their first date.

He set his phone up to start charging and then casually joined the Blesdoes in the other room. They welcomed him kindly, then returned their attention to the closed captioned program.

Travis was so glad things in his life were finally really fitting into place. A girl he liked seemed genuinely interested in him, and he was starting to feel like a part of this little family too. Life really wasn't so bad.


End file.
